The Device Management (DM) specification “OMA DM V1.2” formulated by the Open Mobile Alliance Device Management Work Group (OMA DM WG) is used by a third party to manage and set environment and configuration information of a terminal device (for example, a mobile phone terminal and a function object in a terminal), so as to solve a problem existing in use of the terminal device. For example, an operation such as installation and an upgrade of software and firmware is performed in an Over The Air (OTA) mode, and a service being more human-centered and personalized is provided, thereby improving user experience. The third party may be an operator, a service provider, or an information management department of a partner.
The environment and configuration information of the terminal device is saved in a DM tree. The DM tree includes some Management Objects (MOs). The DM tree is formed from nodes, for example, a root node, an interior node, and a leaf node. The root node is the topmost node in the DM tree; the leaf node may have a node value but cannot have a child node; the interior node cannot have a node value, but can have a child node.
The DM and a relevant application protocol define a data model of an MO, that is, a structure of nodes, descriptions of nodes and related properties. For example, the Device Capability MO (DCMO) protocol defines an MO for managing capabilities of a device. In a specific application, the MO needs to be instantiated in a terminal, that is, nodes are assigned with values and names to generate an actual MO instance that is stored in the DM tree so as to being managed by a DM server and used by a terminal device.
When the data model of the MO is defined, one kind of node, that is, an unnamed node, is defined to act as a placeholder. The node is named only when the DM server or the terminal device instantiates the node, and a node of this type is called an x node.
The DM tree may be regarded as an interface for the DM server to manage the terminal device. The DM server communicates with a DM client in the terminal device through a DM protocol to manage the terminal device. The DM server operates and controls the MO in the DM tree through an operation command such as Get, Replace, Exec, Copy, and Delete. A node of the MO is addressed through a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as “.A/B/C/D”.
In the prior art, the DM server first searches for a position of the MO in the DM tree by locally resolving a Device Description Framework (DDF) or acquires the position of the MO from the terminal device by sending a Management Object Identifier (MOI), and then acquires node information such as structure information and data information (including a node property and a node value) in an MO instance from the terminal device according to the acquired position.